Everyone has probably heard about Apple’s announcements yesterday…
Apple did a refresh of their existing iPod product line, providing a significant upgrade to both form factor and capability in the Nano and to the storage capacity in what they are now calling the iPod ‘Classic’. There is also a new software platform in these devices providing easier navigation and ‘coverflow’ like album browsing. Apple also introduced a brand new tier of iPod.
The iPod ‘Touch’ – it’s next gen touch-screen ipod..
While these products – especially the ‘Touch’ – are pretty solid updates to the iPod line, they were all pretty much expected. There were photos of the new Nano’s floating around the web over a week ago, and the Touch is, ultimately, a ‘phone-less’ iPhone. At yesterday’s event, the ‘One More Thing…’ piece of the presentation was not a piece of hardware, but a new service being offered by Apple.
The iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store…
The iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store (not a name that rolls off the tongue…) will allow you to purchase songs directly from either an iPod Touch or an iPhone. For the first time, you can ‘buy on the fly’ without having to be tethered to your computer. And the next time you do sync up with iTunes, it will automatically copy any songs you purchased into your library. Like most things Apple, its a user friendly process.
And though it appears to be a well designed service, there are two limitations to it that are spelled out right in its name.
“Wi-Fi” and “Music”…
The first is understandable – access only over Wi-Fi. If you are an iPhone user, access over EDGE will not be supported. While I’m sure the limited performance of the Edge network had something to do with it (it would doubtless be painfully slow), I’m sure the biggest reason Apple chose to go Wi-Fi only is that AT&T would have demanded a piece of the action for songs bought across their infrastructure. That seems to be the mindset of all of the carriers – bits are just bits until they think they can charge a premium for them. To get around this, Apple partnered with Starbucks to provide free Wi-Fi access (for just this iTunes service) to every iPod Touch and iPhone user. (This is interesing considering that T-Mobile provides Starbucks Wi-Fi service.) Wanna buy a song remotely? Just pop in to your nearest Starbucks shop – they do seem to be everywhere these days.
The second limitation is that you can only buy Music through this service – no videos, TV shows, or Podcasts. This one I don’t understand. If I’m staying at a hotel and wanted to buy a movie or TV show to watch, I can’t do it through this service. If I want to download podcasts that I listen to or watch on the go without lugging a computer around – again, I’m out of luck. Its music only. Limitations on the type of content available just seems counter-intuitive.
All that said, having support for On-The-Fly downloading is an important milestone in the evolution of the iPod/iPhone line. What Apple has delivered is a good first step. But its only that – a first step. Both the iPhone and the iPod Touch seem to be works-in-progress. While some may view that as a flaw, I see that as a good thing.
Let’s see where it goes from here…
